"By whose order?"
"Surely by your own Master's will," said Aubrey with deep
earnestness. "For he would not have you be a victim to treachery!"
"Treachery!" And the Cardinal smiled. "My son, traitors harm
themselves more than those they would betray. Treachery cannot touch
me!"
Aubrey came a step nearer.
"Monsignor, if you do not care for yourself you will care for the
boy," he said in a lower tone, with a glance at Manuel, who had
withdrawn, and was now standing at one of the windows, the light of
the sunset appearing to brighten itself in his fair hair. "He will
be separated from you!"
At this the Cardinal rose up, his whole form instinct with
resolution and dignity.
"They cannot separate us against the boy's will or mine," he said.
"Manuel!"
Manuel came to his call, and the Cardinal placed one hand on his
shoulder.
"Child," he said softly, "they threaten to part me from you, if we
stay longer here. Therefore we must leave Rome!"
Manuel looked up with a bright flashing glance of tenderness.
"Yes, dear friend, we must leave Rome!" he said. "Rome is no place
for you--or for me!"
There was a moment's silence. Something in the attitude of the old
man and the young boy standing side by side, moved Aubrey deeply; a
sense of awe as well as love overwhelmed him at the sight of these
two beings, so pure in mind, so gentle of heart, and so widely
removed in years and in life,--the one a priest of the Church, the
other a waif of the streets, yet drawn together as it seemed, by the
simple spirit of Christ's teaching, in an almost supernatural bond
of union.
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